Prometheus (2012) - prequel to the Alien movies. A ship is sent out to a faraway star system where they discover the origins of the race of people we saw represented by that giant dude on the ship on LV-426 in the original Alien. The one with his chest burst open. I loved this. Really intriguing plot; I've always been fascinated by that "space jockey" guy as he was known, so anything to do with that is great. I liked the story a lot, it moved along well and was tense and suspenseful. The characters were good, especially Noomi Rapace in the lead role and Charlize Theron as the ruthless commander of the mission. Special effects were awesome. Oh it wasn't perfect, a couple of the characters were too screwy to be believed and that kind of left me feeling like I was watching a B-movie for a minute here and there. And the rest of the characters were good but not on the same level as those in Alien or Aliens. Some of the character's actions didn't seem terribly believable to me either, but still good enough for a 5/5.

Wasn't feeling too good so I took a day off work and watched way too many movies.

Exotica (1994) I'd been meaning to check out the films of Atom Egoyan and since is among his most well received I started here. Centering around the titular Toronto strip club we are introduced to a wide array of lost desperate people following their lives and interactions. Just about everyone has a dark secret and as they unravel we begin to understand their motivations. Style wise this movie is fantastic with incredible music and cinematography. At points it lost my attention and I had trouble following the plot but I don't know if that's my fault or the movies. Overall though this was a very solid arty movie and I will continue to check out Egoyan's filmography, next up The Sweet Hereafter. 7.5/10

Paranoid Park (2007) Another art house kind of movie this one I had a much harder time with. Directed by Gus Van Sant who has made movies I love (Good Will Hunting, Gerry, To Die For) as well as some that i absolutely hate like Elephant. This while I didn't feel as strongly negative as I did with Elephant definitely felt like a chore to get through and by the end I wasn't convinced it was worth it. Focusing on a skater kid who has to deal with his involvement in the death of a security guard we see him mope around, go to the skate park, and break up with his girlfriend. There is some tension when a local detective comes by the school to ask questions but that doesn't go anywhere. Using non actors and a lot of improvisation this is an occasionally interesting but failed experiment. It's usually a bad sign when you start checking to see how much is left in a film and for this one I started looking before the 5 minute mark even hit. There's some fairly obvious allusions to this being a gay allegory but it was all done in such a dull way that it failed to engage. 2.5/10

The Ice Storm (1997) Totally impressed by this Ang Lee drama. Ebert describes the film better than I can "The Ice Storm" takes place as an early winter storm descends on Connecticut, casting over Thanksgiving a shroud of impending doom. In a wooded suburb, affluent adults stir restlessly in their split-level homes, depressed not only by their lives but by their entertainments, and even by their sins. Their teenage children have started experimenting with the same forms of escape: booze, pot and sex." In many dramas repression is the source of dysfunction but in this case we see the impact of excess liberation of various sorts. These characters have sex with who they choose, drink whenever they want and go where they please but nobody seems to be any better for it. At times surprisingly funny at times brutally sad this is an absolutely fantastic drama, well acted, beautifully shot and always engaging. 10/10

Also caught American Mary which I thought was great and Ted of which I completely agree with FatFreddysCats evaluation.

The Bog Creatures (2003) - kind of an old favorite of mine. Some young people go to a bog and dig up some mummified bodies. They're only an inch underground. After some more digging we see the bodies again and now they're just laying on top of the ground. The whole movie's like that. Anyhow these things come back to life and our characters meet another girl who's apparently been terrorized by them - or has she? Low budget junk and there's really nothing good about it; the characters are undeveloped, the dialogue is crummy, it's more funny than "scary". I don't have any idea why I've watched this thing about 4 times now 3/5.

RUBBER (2010): Through binoculars, a band of spectators in the desert watch the story of a sentient telekinetic tire who kills, for no reason. Strange, meta-clever and pretty damn funny, if you get the joke (which admittedly requires an odd and rare sense of humor). 4.5/5.

Logged

"...the luscious love melons of Linnea Quigley are back on the screen in 'Sexbomb,' except that she's no longer Linnea Quigley. She's billed simply as 'Linnea'... So, you might be wondering, where is Linnea Qui... I mean, Linnea? She's exactly where we would expect, wandering around through the background with her breasts hanging out. She's got maybe, oh, eight words to say in this movie, and most of them are 'Here, I brought you some coffee.'"-Joe Bob on SEXBOMB

This was a first for me though I've seen....and liked...the original. I must admit to being disappointed. Most of the musical numbers were somewhat silly,they used too much pointless foul language and I hated the ending. This was the director's cut so it had the ending Frank Oz and his bunch prefered....the ending that was panned by its initial preview audience. Plus it lacked one of the key points of creepiness in my book....when the flowers bloomed and they had the faces of past victims on them. I'd give it a 3 outta 10.

Bloody Birthday (1981) - This is more consistent but less creepy than Devil Times Five as far as insane little kids on the rampage goes. It doesn't have any ambition beyond showing these kids kill people. It's pretty entertaining though. The one kid with the glasses and the little girl are especially menacing. The other kid doesn't really do much. There is a little bit of sex and nudity too. The little girl charges the other kids to look through a hole in the wall at her naked teenage sister. Its kind of sordid not on the level of The Baby or something but what is. It get to the point right away and stays there which more than you can say for most movies. 4/5

Quentin Tarantino's WWII epic about a crack commando team (led by Brad Pitt, with a hilarious Southern accent) and a plot to assassinate the entire Nazi high command during a Paris film premiere is overlong and way too talky for its own good (like most Tarantino films), but the occasional bursts of brutal violence and the kick-ass finale almost make sitting through all the blah-blah-blah worth it. I didn't hate it but I've seen lots better. Add a few points if you're a Q.T. fanboy.

Boa (2001) - watched this again. Dead Cain goes to a new prison in Antarctica to do battle with an 80 foot snake. Pretty fun little bit of fluff, with the expected bad CGI and a climax that's off-the-charts as far as unbelievability. Characters were okay, the action moved along at a decent pace. A good ol' 3/5.

I've been making my way through Oasis of the Zombies (1982) a little bit at a time over the last few months. Finally decided to start from the beginning again last night. Kind of fell sound asleep halfway through. I'll try to finish it up tonight.

Barbara is building her dream house thanks to her rich father. Soon after she finds the perfect man to marry, David. But David ain't perfect: he cheats on Barbara during their wedding. Barbara's enraged, stabs David with a pair of scissors and disappears for two weeks. Meanwhile a recovering David hooks up with his ex, but he is also receiving weird phone calls. When he discovers a bloody chicken head in his bed he's sure that Barbara is up to no good. One night David decides to visit Barbara's unfinished house where he encounters pure terror ...

Thrilling horror with a few surprises. Well acted, including unusual but great soundtrack. I can see why this is a Quentin Tarantino fave and where the Reservoir Dogs got their suits from. 4.5/5

Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy comes to an epic close, as a terrorist named Bane places Gotham City under martial law and forces Batman out of an eight year retirement. Gorgeously photographed (and I'm not just talkin' about Anne Hathaway in the Catwoman suit), with very cool action set pieces, suitably great performances by Michael "Alfred" Caine, Morgan "Lucius" Freeman and Joseph Gordon Levitt as a devoted Gotham cop who figures heavily in the finale.

Not quite as awesome as the preceding "Dark Knight" flick but still pretty damn good and wraps up the series nicely.

Oasis of the Zombies (1982) - there's a couple of cute girls in the first five minutes of this. You could probably turn it off after that. Anyhow, some young people go out to an oasis in the desert looking for six million in Nazi treasure from WWII. Dialogue is nonsense - at one point a guy says "Let's get some bottles and make Molotov cocktails, like at school!" Huh? What the heck school did they go to? When they throw them they make an explosion sound like an artillery shell. Our characters are surrounded by zombies you see, so they run over to the jeep to get some gas to start a fire to chase them away. I don't mean to sound like Mr. know-it-all, but as long as you've got a jeep right there, maybe you could just drive away? Sigh. The theme music is this organ stuff, it makes the music they play when you're standing in line for communion at church sound downright exciting. Great plot though - kids go to the desert, lots of long shots of the desert - people looking at the desert, the sky, more desert - zombies show up and kill some of them, the end. I'll be extremely generous and give it a 2/5.

Murder by Contract (1958) - Very good in many places excellent late film noir about a guy who murders people because people pay him based on the terms of a contract. a guy named Contract doesn't murder people and it's not a clothing line called murder put out by ... Anyway, the guy is good at his job but a bit eccentric. Two less ambitious mob guys are tasked with taking him around town and helping him as he sets up a very big and important job, a hit on an informant who was an ex of the big boss. What looks like a cut and dry job becomes more difficult as the target hires more and more security due to her overwhelming and justified fear of being killed.

Pieces of everything from Fight Club to Taxi Driver (Scorcese acknowledges as much in the extra thing) are here via time machine and in general it does about all it can with obvious budget limitations. It's mostly these guys but there is one rather attractive blonde who has a brief role and a couple others here and there. 1 hour and 20 minutes and pretty bad ass 4.5/5